A Global Firm convenes the leaders, capital, and communities to help Appalachia lead America’s next economy — and set a model the nation and the world can follow.
For more than three decades, the work has been the same: bring resources, opportunity, investment, and national attention to Appalachia — through public health, workforce development, transportation, economic development, and national policy. The mission never changed: help Appalachia compete, and lead.
Today another once-in-a-generation opportunity has arrived. Artificial intelligence, energy infrastructure, critical minerals, advanced manufacturing, and digital infrastructure are converging in ways that place Appalachia at the center of America’s next economy. This is not simply another economic-development opportunity. It is a chance to shape how that future is built.
That is why A Global Firm was created. Community Education Group continues to implement solutions in communities. A Global Firm exists to convene leaders, align capital, develop strategy, and build the partnerships capable of transforming regions.
In conversations across Washington, London, Oxford, and Europe, one conclusion keeps returning: every region is wrestling with the same questions. How do we build AI infrastructure? Secure enough energy? Protect communities? Prepare workers? Ensure prosperity reaches rural places? Appalachia is uniquely positioned to answer them.
Whether in Europe, Africa, Latin America, or the United States, regions are asking remarkably similar questions about AI, energy, infrastructure, agriculture, and rural prosperity. Appalachia has the opportunity to become the first to demonstrate an integrated model that others can adapt.
Consultants deliver reports. Institutions shape history. A Global Firm proposes to build — with the states, the ARC, communities, universities, industry, and investors — an independent standard the region itself authors: a way to welcome the investment while ensuring it leaves communities stronger than it found them.
To explore this opportunity, AGF has intentionally assembled expertise across the disciplines this moment demands:
Among those contributing is Thane Kreiner, whose work at the Miller Center and Santa Clara University brings expertise in innovation, public leadership, and institution-building. Together, we have begun developing the technical and strategic foundations this initiative requires.
For more than thirty years, my mission has been to ensure that Appalachia is not merely the recipient of opportunity, but a creator of solutions that influence the nation and, ultimately, the world.
We’re not asking for a commitment today — we’re asking a better question: if Appalachia were to lead this effort, who else should be at the table? We’d welcome your advice on how the region brings together the voices that rarely collaborate: governors, industry, communities, universities, utilities, agriculture, philanthropy, and investment.